ACS Selects Martin, Brodeur

BOSTON The American Cancer Society said it has selected Interpublic Group shop The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., and Omnicom Group's Brodeur Partners here to handle general-market advertising and public relations, respectively, following a review.

The client spent $10 million on ads through July, and the assignment awarded today is worth approximately $20 million overall.

T.G. Madison, an independent in Atlanta, had been ACS' lead agency for a decade. That shop did attempt to defend its portion of the account. Omnicom's Porter Novelli in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, had handled public relations for eight years, but did not compete in the review.

Greg Donaldson, vp, corporate communications for the client, said: "We have had a long and extraordinarily productive working relationship with T.G. Madison. Sadly, times change and so does the nonprofit landscape. After the process, it became clear that we had a tough choice to make. In the end we chose to take our brand in a radically different direction. Both Martin and Brodeur demonstrated innovative thinking and an innate ability to yield keen insights."

Pile and Co., the consulting firm in Boston, led the search process on the client's behalf.

Recent work for the client includes a spot in which a man at a dinner table uses his mashed potatoes and peas to demonstrate how polyps can be removed from a colon before they become cancerous. A print execution uses type winding around, as if in a colon tract.

BOSTON The American Cancer Society said it has selected Interpublic Group shop The Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., and Omnicom Group's Brodeur Partners here to handle general-market advertising and public relations, respectively, following a review.

The client spent $10 million on ads through July, and the assignment awarded today is worth approximately $20 million overall.

T.G. Madison, an independent in Atlanta, had been ACS' lead agency for a decade. That shop did attempt to defend its portion of the account. Omnicom's Porter Novelli in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, had handled public relations for eight years, but did not compete in the review.

Greg Donaldson, vp, corporate communications for the client, said: "We have had a long and extraordinarily productive working relationship with T.G. Madison. Sadly, times change and so does the nonprofit landscape. After the process, it became clear that we had a tough choice to make. In the end we chose to take our brand in a radically different direction. Both Martin and Brodeur demonstrated innovative thinking and an innate ability to yield keen insights."

Pile and Co., the consulting firm in Boston, led the search process on the client's behalf.

Recent work for the client includes a spot in which a man at a dinner table uses his mashed potatoes and peas to demonstrate how polyps can be removed from a colon before they become cancerous. A print execution uses type winding around, as if in a colon tract.